This paper examines the methods by which Disney’s Cinderella has usurped the canonical place of previous iterations of the “Cinderella” tale by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, by performing a civilizing function for its American audiences and inscribing an “American dream”-style mythos across a traditional European narrative.

Ironically, Tiana, Disney’s most modern princess, set in 20th century America, relies on the tropes and devices of that most medieval of genres, the morality play--and it does so to hide those elements of culture that had so often lurked behind the scenes in Disney’s landscapes even as the film presents itself as a vision of a new, more diverse Disney.

This paper examines how the evolving natural worlds of animated Disney films reflect the increasing physical and mental strengths of their female protagonists as well as audiences’ changing conceptualizations of Nature from sanctuaries of anonymity and innocence to spaces of discovery and self-realization.